Raspberry {No Bake} Cheesecake Ice Cream

I am excited to share with you one of my all time favorite desserts turned into ice cream. Growing up my family had a large raspberry patch. Each summer we would pick and sell the raspberries, it was an awesome summer job for me. Although waking up at 6:00 during summer vacation is hardly any teenager’s dream, I have very fond memories of the time I spent in the berry patch with my family.

As I am sure you can imagine, we had quite a few different raspberry desserts at our house. However, there is one that always reigned supreme, my Mom’s {No Bake} Raspberry Cheesecake Pie was definitely our family’s all time favorite! This pie was always the first thing made with the raspberries each summer and appeared as a special treat throughout the berry season. I couldn’t help trying to recreate this amazing pie as ice cream in anticipation of this year’s fresh berries.

You can make a lot of adaptations to this recipe to suit your preferences.

Raspberry {No Bake} Cheesecake Ice Cream

Raspberry Layer:

about 2 cups raspberries
1/4-1/2 c powdered sugar

Heat the raspberries and sugar in a saucepan until it boils and becomes a little thickened. Strain some of the seeds out using a mesh strainer (optional). Cool completely in refrigerator.

Next time I would do something different. While I thought it tasted great, the raspberry layer was a little icy. I think using cut fresh berries could work well just mixed in without boiling.

I recommend using the basic vanilla ice cream recipe that comes with your ice cream maker. I usually like using the easy recipes that don’t use eggs, because they are fast. You can also experiment with the milk to cream ratio to find the texture and taste you like the best.

Mix all the ingredients, except the graham crackers, together until sugar is dissolved. Cover and refrigerate until ready to process (at least one hour). Follow freezing directions for your ice cream maker.

After ice cream has finished churning, mix in the graham crackers by hand. (You could add them at the end while your ice cream maker is still churning. Mine just started to overflow when I tried this.)

Layering Directions:

In a 2 quart freezer safe container, spread a small layer of ice cream, raspberry sauce, and cream cheese filling. Repeat as many times as necessary. I loved the ribbon effect of the layers. If you run out of space in your container…enjoy the last little bit soft serve. Put the ice cream in the freezer for about 2 hours. **This is an important step when making homemade ice cream. Unless you want soft serve ice cream, always allow time for the ice cream to freeze in the freezer after processing.**

If you need an ice cream maker, I just bought an awesome Cuisinart Ice Cream maker from Sur La Table a couple weeks ago. I like that this machine doesn’t require salt or ice, but you do have to freeze the bowl for about 16 hours before using. So, it does require some planning (or you could just store your bowl in the freezer). **It looks like the same ice cream maker is on sale at Costco (check your coupons) starting this week.**

I hope you like homemade ice cream, because I predict you will be seeing a lot of ice cream this summer!! What is your favorite ice cream flavor? Any flavor you would like to see posted?